Wilmington officials eye $52 million transportation bond referendum

The Wilmington City Council seemed receptive Tuesday to a $52 million transportation bond to pay for road, bicycle and public transportation improvements. After hearing a presentation on the proposed referendum, which could be on November's ballot, Mayor Bill Saffo praised the work of a three-member council committee that has been working on the effort. "The community continues to grow and we've got to do something about our roads," Saffo said.Meanwhile, the Love Grove community is backing off its pursuit of a separate referendum that would require the city to build a second access to the neighborhood, bound by woods, creeks and railroad tracks. On Monday, Love Grove's neighborhood association voted to suspend efforts to gather 2,285 signatures so the matter would appear on November's ballot, according to a news release sent by Ronald Sparks. Sparks, a former city councilman, had been assisting the neighborhood with the effort. The decision followed a meeting with Saffo and Councilmen Earl Sheridan and Kevin O'Grady. Instead of pursuing a referendum, Love Grove's association will now support the city's proposed transportation bond, Sparks said. Initially, the community had pursued its own referendum even though the mayor's committee recommended the bond issue fund a second access to Love Grove. A June 2013 train derailment that blocked access to Love Grove for hours galvanized residents to pressure the city for a second access, reigniting a struggle that goes back years.At Tuesday's council meeting, O'Grady said the transportation initiative was designed to include projects to benefit the entire city. O'Grady added that he was not completely satisfied with the list of projects because he felt they did not encompass the southeast area of the city in the Masonboro Loop Road area. To address that, O'Grady asked that the committee meet a final time to try to expand a greenway project to reach that part of the city.Councilwoman Laura Padgett said local governments across the country need to take more responsibility for road projects. "We're being a forward-looking city to ask our citizens to think about this," she said, of the referendum as a whole. Padgett, who served on the mayor's committee along with Sheridan and O'Grady, said the projects were not prioritized. If the referendum is approved, a schedule of when the work would happen would need to be developed, she said.